Tag Archives: Murder

100 Years Ago Today: Leo Frank Takes the Stand

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Leo-Frank-on-the-Witness-StandOriginally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

In a few days the Mercury will present Week Three of the trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. Today, on the 100th anniversary of Leo Frank taking the stand in his own defense, we present a digest of opinion and contemporary sources on his statement.

AT THE CLIMAX of the Leo Frank trial, an admission was made by the defendant that amounted to a confession during trial. How many times in the annals of US legal history has this happened? Something very unusual happened during the month-long People v. Leo M. Frank murder trial, held within Georgia’s Fulton County Superior Courthouse in the Summer of 1913. I’m going to show you evidence that Mr. Leo Max Frank inadvertently revealed the solution to the Mary Phagan murder mystery.

Leo Frank

Leo Frank

In addition to being an executive of Atlanta’s National Pencil Company, Leo Frank was also a B’nai B’rith official — president of the 500-member Gate City Lodge in 1912 — and even after his conviction and incarceration Frank was elected lodge president again in 1913. As a direct result of the Leo Frank conviction, the B’nai B’rith founded their well-known and politically powerful “Anti-Defamation League,” or ADL. Continue Reading →

Leo Frank Trial: Week Four

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Leo-Frank-closeup-340x264Originally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

Join The American Mercury as we recount the events of the final week of the trial of Leo Frank (pictured) for the slaying of Mary Phagan.

by Bradford L. Huie

ON THE HEELS of Leo Frank’s astounding unsworn statement to the court, the defense called a number of women who stated that they had never experienced any improper sexual advances on the part of Frank. But the prosecution rebutted that testimony with several rather persuasive female witnesses of its own. These rebuttal witnesses also addressed Frank’s claims that he was so unfamiliar with Mary Phagan that he did not even know her by name. (For background on this case, read our introductory article, our coverage of Week One,  Week Two, and Week Three of the trial, and my exclusive summary of the evidence against Frank.)

Here are the witnesses’ statements, direct from the Brief of Evidence, interspersed with my commentary. The emphasis and paragraphing (for clarity) is mine. The defense recommenced with a large contingent of Frank’s friends, business associates, and employees who would say that Leo Frank was of good character and had not, to their knowledge, made any improper sexual approaches to the girls and women who worked under him: Continue Reading →

The Leo Frank Trial: Week Three

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Leo-Frank-suit-portrait_crop-340x264Originally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

The trial of Leo Frank (pictured) for the murder of Mary Phagan ended its third week 100 years ago today. Join us as we break through the myths surrounding the case and investigate what really happened.

by Bradford L. Huie

AS THE THIRD WEEK of the trial dawned, the prosecution had just made its case that National Pencil Company Superintendent Leo Max Frank had murdered 13-year-old laborer Mary Phagan — and a powerful case it was. Now it was the defense’s turn — and the defense team was a formidable one, the best that money could buy in 1913 Atlanta, led by Reuben Arnold and Luther Rosser. And many would argue that the city’s well-known promoter and attorney Thomas B. Felder was also secretly working for Frank and his friends, along with the two biggest detective agencies in the United States, the Burns agency — sub rosa, under the direction of Felder — and the Pinkertons — openly, cooperating with the police, and under the direction of the National Pencil Company. (For background on this case, read our introductory article, our coverage of Week One and Week Two of the trial, and my exclusive summary of the evidence against Frank.)

As the defense began its parade of witnesses, few suspected that the defendant himself, Leo Frank, would soon take the stand and make an admission so astonishing that it strained belief. Continue Reading →

“Thousands in Atlanta Living the Life of Mary Phagan’s Murderer”—Rev. W. W. Memminger

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Thousands In Atlanta

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Monday, May 26th, 1913

“Thousands of people in Atlanta are living the lives today that the murderer of Mary Phagan lived, and which culminated in the atrocious crime,” declared Rev. W. W. Memminger, pastor of All Saints’ Episcopal church. In a sermon yesterday morning which he devoted in great part to pleading for a better standard of morals in the daily life of man and woman.

The woman who uses paint and powder, who dances the turkey trot and who dresses in a suggestive manner came in for scathing remarks from the rector, but the man who boasts of being the stronger sex, and yet bends his efforts to tearing down woman’s standard, instead of upholding and protecting virtue and purity, was given even greater blame.

“Women are wrong to adopt any suggestive manner of dress or to use paint and powder which for hundreds of years has been the mark and symbol of a certain type of women,” said the pastor, “and I agree with the church councils which have passed resolutions deprecating it.” Continue Reading →

The Leo Frank Trial: Week Two

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jim-conley-340x264Originally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

The trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan ended its second week 100 years ago today. Join us as we delve into the original documents of the time and learn what the jurors learned.

by Bradford L. Huie

THE EVIDENCE that National Pencil Company Superintendent Leo Frank had murdered 13-year-old child laborer Mary Phagan was mounting up as the second week of Frank’s trial began in Atlanta, and passions were high on both sides as star witness Jim Conley (pictured) took the stand.

The attempt to frame the innocent black  night watchman, Newt Lee, had failed, despite 1) the “death notes” left near the body implicating him, 2) the bloody shirt planted in his trash barrel, and 3) the forged time card supposedly showing that he had left his post for several hours the night the murder was discovered. Although no one of significance suspected Lee at this point, the defense would still try to attack the medical testimony that placed the murder near midday on April 26, and would introduce Lee’s second alleged time card, provided by Frank, purporting to show that Lee had many hours unaccounted for on the night of the 26th and the early morning hours of the 27th of April.

Newt Lee’s testimony of Frank’s peculiar behavior that afternoon and evening was compelling. Another African-American was about to become pivotal in this case: factory sweeper Jim Conley would testify that he had helped Frank by keeping watch while Frank “chatted” with Mary alone in his office, and by assisting Frank in moving her body to the basement after she was accidentally killed. Conley was about to become central to the defense’s case, too — they would allege that Conley was the real killer. (For background on this case, read our introductory article, our coverage of Week One of the trial, and my exclusive summary of the evidence against Frank.) Continue Reading →

The Leo Frank Trial: Week One

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Newt-lee-custody1-340x264

Originally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

100 years ago today the trial of the 20th century ended its first week, shedding brilliant light on the greatest murder mystery of all time: the murder of Mary Phagan. And you are there.

by Bradford L. Huie

THE MOST IMPORTANT testimony in the first week of the trial of National Pencil Company superintendent Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan was that of the night watchman, Newt Lee (pictured, right, in custody), who had discovered 13-year-old Mary’s body in the basement of the pencil factory during his nightly rounds in the early morning darkness of April 27, 1913. Here at the Mercury we are following the events of this history-making trial as they unfolded exactly 100 years ago. We are fortunate indeed that Lee’s entire testimony has survived as part of the Leo Frank Trial Brief of Evidence, certified as accurate by both the defense and the prosecution during the appeal process. (For background on this case, read our introductory article and my exclusive summary of the evidence against Frank.) Continue Reading →

100 Years Ago Today: The Trial of Leo Frank Begins

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Leo-Frank-Atlanta-Georgian-courtroom-sketch-340x264

Originally published by the American Mercury on the 100th anniversary of the Leo Frank trial.

Take a journey through time with the American Mercury, and experience the trial of Leo Frank (pictured, in courtroom sketch) for the murder of Mary Phagan just as it happened as revealed in contemporary accounts. The Mercury will be covering this historic trial in capsule form from now until August 26, the 100th anniversary of the rendering of the verdict.

by Bradford L. Huie

THE JEWISH ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL) — in great contrast to the American Mercury and other independent media — has given hardly any publicity to the 100th anniversary of the murder of Mary Phagan and the arrest and trial of Leo Frank, despite the fact that these events eventually led to the foundation of the ADL. Probably the League is saving its PR blitz for 1915, not only because that is centenary of Leo Frank’s death by lynching (an event possibly of much greater interest to the League’s wealthy donors than the death of Mary Phagan, a mere Gentile factory girl), but also because encouraging the public to read about Frank’s trial might not be good for the ADL — it might well lead to doubts about the received narrative, which posits an obviously innocent Frank persecuted by anti-Semitic Southerners looking for a Jewish scapegoat.

For readers not familiar with the case, a good place to start is Scott Aaron’s summary of the crime, from his The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank, which states in part:

“ON SATURDAY morning at 11:30, April 26, 1913 Mary Phagan ate a poor girl’s lunch of bread and boiled cabbage and said goodbye to her mother for the last time. Dressed for parade-watching (for this was Confederate Memorial Day) in a lavender dress, ribbon-bedecked hat, and parasol, she left her home in hardscrabble working-class Bellwood at 11:45, and caught the streetcar for downtown Atlanta.

“Before the festivities, though, she stopped to see Superintendent Leo M. Frank at the National Pencil Company and pick up from him her $1.20 pay for the one day she had worked there during the previous week….

“Almost no one knew it at the time, but by one o’clock one young life was already over. For her there would never again be parades, or music, or kisses, or flowers, or children, or love. Mary Phagan never left the National Pencil Company alive. Abused, beaten, and strangled by a rough cord pulled so tightly that it had embedded itself deeply in her girlish neck and made her tongue protrude more than an inch from her mouth, Mary Phagan lay dead, dumped in the dirt and shavings of the pencil company basement, her once-bright eyes now sightless and still as she lay before the gaping maw of the furnace where the factory trash was burned.”

Continue Reading →

Newt Lee Will Give Convicting Evidence Attorney Indicates

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Newt Lee WillAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Journal

Saturday, May 24th, 1913

Bernard L. Chappell, Lawyer for Negro Suspect, Declares His Client’s Testimony to Be Invaluable to the Case

Bernard L. Chappell, attorney for Newt Lee, the negro night watchman held as a suspect in connection with the murder of Mary Phagan, gave The Journal a statement Saturday indicating that his client will give practically convicting evidence as to the identity of the murderer.

“I consider his testimony the strongest known to the public against the guilty party,” said Mr. Chappell. “Before I would see him released and give the guilty party a chance to get his hands on Lee, I, his attorney, would swear out a warrant to hold him for the murder of Mary Phagan.”

It is to be presumed from the tone of Mr. Chappell’s card that Lee has given his attorney information yet withheld from the detectives. Mr. Chappell’s card to The Journal follows in full:

“To The Journal: I represent Newt Lee, the Phagan suspect. I wish to state that anyone who says that Newt Lee, the negro suspect in the Mary Phagan case, should be set free, is wrong, and before I would see him released and give the guilty part of this, the deepest and foulest murder ever committed in our state, a chance to get his hands on Lee, I, his attorney, would swear out a warrant to hold him for the murder of Mary Phagan.

“I consider his testimony the strongest known to the public against the guilty party. I want the public to know that it is my desire that the state’s custodian, our sheriff, C. W. Mangum, must hold my client, Newt Lee, to help avenge the murder of the little Mary Phagan girl whose blood cries to the Creator of us all.

“(Signed)

“BERNARD L. CHAPPELL.

“Attorney for Newt Lee.”

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 24th 1913, “Newt Lee Will Give Convicting Evidence Attorney Indicates,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Friends Say Frank’s Actions Point to Innocence

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A young Leo Frank (top center) and friends enjoy a day at the beach in New York.

A young Leo Frank (top center) and friends enjoy a day at the beach in New York.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, May 14th, 1913

If Leo M. Frank is guilty of any connection with the murder of Mary Phagan, his actions in the Tower belie the time-honored theories of the greatest criminologists the world has ever produced, visitors to the prisoner declare.

Famous psychologists, working on the supposition that the great weight of guilt upon the mind of a murderer will, if given time, finally overbalance the calm exterior with which he faces his accusers, have made excellent use of what they have termed “silent treatment.”

Prisoners accused of horrible crimes have been thrown into cells and left to brood in the long hours of the night. Often a scream, ringing down the prison corridors, will tell the tale of their guilt. Cell keepers, rushing up, have found prisoners re-enacting their crimes, muttering the same words they used when they slew their victims and beating the air with their fists. In one celebrated case demonstrating this, the man beat his brains out against the bars before he could be rescued. His action, it was claimed afterward, was due to overpowering remorse following the realistic pantomime of the death scene in which he figured. Continue Reading →

Mother Thinks Police Are Doing Their Best

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Mary Phagan's mother, Fannie Phagan Coleman (center), with her family in Atlanta, 1902. She holds Mary (right) and another child. Mary Phagan's older sister, Ollie Mae, stands at front left.

Mary Phagan’s mother, Fannie Phagan Coleman (center), with her family in Atlanta, 1902. She holds Mary (right) and another child. Mary Phagan’s older sister, Ollie Mae, stands at front left.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, May 13th, 1913

Mrs. J. W. Coleman, mother of little 14-year-old Mary Phagan, prostrated with grief for sixteen days following the tragic slaying of her child, took up her household duties Tuesday for the first time, resigned to the calamity that has befallen her home, and relying on the law to avenge the death of her child.

“It was such a beautiful morning,” said Mrs. Coleman to a Georgian reporter, “and I have been able to rest now for three nights, so I felt like doing my work again. My house has been in such a turmoil since this dreadful tragedy. I feel I am helpless and have resigned myself to the sad lot that has befallen us. All we can do is wait, and waiting is a hard task.

No Complaint of Police.

“Don’t misunderstand me, I am complaining about what the officers are doing. It is far better to go slow and be sure that we are doing right than to hurry and make a mistake. I believe that the police and the solicitor are doing everything they can to find the guilty man. They ought to do it; such a crime ought to be punished. But I do not want them to make a mistake.

“I heard that feeling was very strong last week, but I am glad that no hasty action was taken. It might have been all wrong, and I think I would have been grieved as much as anybody.

“We have made many inquiries among our friends and acquaintances and have not found one who saw Mary after 12 o’clock Saturday, when she went to the factory to get her pay. So much seems to depend on that point, and if anyone did see her, he certainly ought to tell about it. It does look like if Mary were on the streets Saturday afternoon, as many friends as we have, some of them would have seen her. We do not believe she ever left the factory.” Continue Reading →

The Phagan Case Day by Day

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The Phagan Case Day by DayAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Monday, May 12th, 1913

The history of the baffling Phagan mystery, daily recorded, is briefly as follows:

Sunday April 26—Girl’s body found in basement of pencil factory. Newt Lee, negro night watchman, who made discovery, arrested. Arthur Mullinax, street car employee, also arrested. Both held on suspicion.

Monday—Leo M. Frank, factory superintendent, detained, but later released. J. M. Gantt, former bookkeeper of pencil concern and friend of dead girl, arrested in Marietta. Negro elevator boy also taken into custody. Pinkertons enter case.

Tuesday—Bloody shirt found at negro watchman’s home. Planted evidence theory advanced. Mary Phagan’s body buried. Sleuths announce they have evidence to convict. Frank confers with negro suspect.

Wednesday—Inquest begins. Newt Lee testifies. One hundred and fifty pencil factory employees summoned before coroner. George Epps, newsboy, tells of ride to uptown with Mary Phagan on her last trip.

Thursday—Frank and Lee ordered to Fulton tower on warrants issued by Coroner Donehoo. Trip made without incident. Continue Reading →

Mystery of 14-Year-Old Mary Phagan’s Tragic End Adds One to Long List of Atlanta’s Unsolved Crimes

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Mystery of 14Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, May 11th, 1913

BY GORDON NOEL HURTEL.

The mystery surrounding the murder of Mary Phagan, the young factory girl who met a tragic and a terrible death in the heart of a city whose streets were thronged with holiday crowds, may add another chapter to Atlanta’s record of unsolved and unpunished crimes.

Can such things be? is asked. Can murder, red-handed, find a victim in the midst of a populous city when the sun is smiling in God’s skies of blue and where the protecting power of the law and the vengeance of justice are near, and the criminal go uncaught and the crime unpunished? History answers “Yes,” for Atlanta’s criminal annals show that there have been, ever since the city was a village, murder mysteries that remained unsolved, despite the tireless efforts of human ingenuity to bring the murderers to justice.

Murder Will Not Always Out.

That “murder will not always out” is shown by the tragedies that are here recited, for of tragedies that left unfulfilled the mandate of Jehovah, “who sheds man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed,” Atlanta has had its full quota. Nor is this city more flecked with the blood of unavenged victims than other communities. Ever since the first murder of the world, when only fratricide’s God knew of the crime, punishment has come alone from some power greater than that of man.

The stories here recorded of “Atlanta’s Murder Mysteries” had all the elements of boldness and brutality to defy the skill of Gaborian’s “LeCoq” or Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes.” Many clues were followed up and arrests were made.  In some of the cases the officers were positive they had caught the guilty criminals, as the evidence appeared convincing and conclusive, but in the end the mystery still remained a mystery. Continue Reading →

Mary Phagan’s Death Only Assured Fact Developed

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Mary Phagan's Death Only

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, May 11th, 1913

BY JAMES. B. NEVIN.

Mary Phagan is dead. She was murdered.

Leo Frank, and Newt Lee are in jail, upon the findings of a Coroner’s jury, held as suspects for investigation by the Grand Jury.

Here is a case of cause and effect involving the most elusive series of connecting events that ever came under my observation of criminals and crime, through fifteen years of varied newspaper experience in a number of American cities.

It is not my purpose here to try this case. Such comments as I may set down are personal merely.

I did sit through the last day of the Coroner’s inquest, but beyond that, my information as to this strange case came to me by way of the mouths and pens of persons charged with some measure of responsibility for fixing the truth of the matter in such wise as it might be fixed. My facts are authoritative, my conclusions strictly my own.

It is my opinion that the slayer of poor, little Mary Phagan has not yet been found or identified. Moreover within my mind there dwells an ever-increasing doubt that her slayer, or slayers, ever will be apprehended. Continue Reading →

City Detectives’ Theory of Phagan Murder Outlined

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City Detectives

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Journal

Sunday, May 11th, 1913

The Journal Presents First Complete Statement of Case Solicitor and His Investigators Seek to Build

HOW DETECTIVES THINK CRIME WAS COMMITTED

They Maintain That Mary Phagan Was Left Unconscious in Factory Near Midday and Killed Later in Afternoon

For the first time since the lifeless body of pretty fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan was found in the basement of the National Pencil factory, this morning two weeks ago, The Journal is enabled to make public the theory of the city detectives and others investigating the murder mystery as to how the crime was committed.

HERE IS THE THEORY.

The theory in detail is:

That Mary Phagan arrived at the pencil factory between 12 and 12:10 o’clock on Saturday, April 26; that within a short time after she arrived there she was lured to the metal room on the second floor, where she worked; that the big doors of this room were closed, making it almost impossible for the two men working on the fourth floor to hear any outcries; that she was overpowered and assaulted. Continue Reading →

Investigation Just Begun Says Detective Lanford

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Investigation Just BegunAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Journal

Friday, May 9th, 1913

General satisfaction was expressed Friday morning by the detectives working on the Phagan case at the action of the coroner’s jury.

Chief of Detectives Lanford, however, declares that the work of his department is just now getting under way.

“We are going to continue right on with the investigation,” said the officials, “and try to dig down to the truth of this matter.”

“We have a theory as to who committed the crime, but we are ready to change it if we can possibly unearth any evidence, which will prove that theory wrong. We are going to make an impartial investigation and we are not going to leave anything undone, which might tend towards the solution of the mystery.

“My men will not be so pushed for time now and they can make systematic and deliberate investigation of every point of importance in the case, and they have much hard work before them. Even if nothing new develops, we have enough work outlined on the case to keep half a dozen men busy for the next week.”

Detectives Campbell, Starnes, Black, Bullard and Bass Rosser, who have been working on the case, are still detailed to the investigation.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 9th 1913, “Investigation Just Begun Says Detective Lanford,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Frank and Lee Ordered Held by Coroner’s Jury for Mary Phagan Murder

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Leo M. Frank, factory superintendent, who, with Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, was held for the grand jury.

Leo M. Frank, factory superintendent, who, with Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, was held for the grand jury.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Friday, May 9th, 1913

Sensational Statements Made at Inquest by Two Women, One of Whom Had Been an Employee, Who Declared That Frank Had Been Guilty of Improper Conduct Toward His Feminine Employees and Had Made Proposals to Them in the Factory.

EVIDENCE IN BAFFLING MYSTERY THUS FAR, IS CIRCUMSTANTIAL, IS ADMISSION MADE BY DETECTIVES

Frank and Lee Both Go on Stand Again and Are Closely Questioned in Regard to New Lines of Evidence and Forced to Reiterate Testimony Formerly Made to Coroner’s Jury. They Will Remain in Jail Pending Action of the Grand Jury.

Leo. M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil factory, and Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, suspects in the Mary Phagan murder, were ordered by the coroner’s jury to be held under charges of murder for further investigation by the Fulton grand jury.

With this verdict the inquest closed at 6:28 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Frank and the negro will be held in the Tower until action is taken by the grand jury and solicitor general. The decision was reached within twenty minutes after the jury had retired.

Although much important testimony was delivered at the inquest, probably the most significant was the admission made by Detective Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, and Detective John Black, of headquarters, both of whom declared in answer to questions that they so far had obtained no conclusive evidence or clues in the baffling mystery, and that their only success had been attained in the forging of a chain of circumstantial evidence. Continue Reading →

Coroner Donehoo Points Out the Law to the Jurors

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Coroner Donehoo Points Out the Law

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Journal

Friday, May 9th, 1913

The coroner’s charge to the jury was in part as follows: “You have heard the statement of the county physician. You have seen what caused death. You have seen the body and have heard the evidence in the case.

“It is your duty to inquire diligently as to how Mary Phagan came to her death. That was your oath. In case of unnatural death, you were to determine at whose hands death came.

“You have heard the county physician say strangulation caused death. In determining who is guilty of the murder you turn to the evidence, and if you find that any other party is implicated or is attempting to shield the murderer, he is guilty in the same degree.

“Your position in this matter is similar to that of a commitment court, not a trial court.

“If there is a reasonable suspicion in your mind directed against any person or persons in connection with this crime, it is your duty to hold them. You can also hold witnesses who are essential in trying this case. If you think anybody not actually connected with the case has important information bearing upon it, you can hold them.

“If you believe any one is concealing information, it is your duty to commit that person as an accessory of the crime.”

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 9th 1913, “Coroner Donehoo Points Out the Law to the Jurors,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Grand Jury to Sift the Evidence in the Phagan Case Within the Next Few Days

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Grand Jury to Sift the Evidence in the Phagan

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, May 8th, 1913

Late this afternoon the police and detectives engaged on the Phagan case said they were satisfied with the progress being made before the Coroner’s Jury.

Apparently all other clews have been abandoned, and the present line of police activity would seem to center around Lee and Frank.

Whatever evidence the police have they refuse to disclose.

The entire mystery will be taken up by the Grand Jury within the next few days.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 8th 1913, “Grand Jury to Sift the Evidence in the Phagan Case Within the Next Few Days,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Paul Bowen, Held in Houston, Known Here But Left Atlanta in October; Hasn’t Been Back

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Paul Bowen

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Journal

Tuesday, May 6th, 1913

Negative Alibi Seems Established for Young Man Held in Texas City as Suspected Murderer of Mary Phagan in Atlanta — Police There Say “Strong Evidence,” but Nothing Shows Young Man Was Around Here April 26

BROTHER, IN NEWNAN, SAYS PAUL HAS BEEN IN HOUSTON SIX WEEKS; OUT WEST SINCE OCTOBER

Two Friends, Young Men in Atlanta, Report Recent Letters From Him—Brother Has Had One—So Has Father—Detectives Say Quinn Changed His Story—Newt Lee Declares Murder Must Have Occurred During the Afternoon

A negative alibi established for Paul P. Bowen by several authorities, among whom are his brother and his father Newnan, seems to clear the young man arrested Monday night in Houston, Tex, from any suspicious connection with the murder of Mary Phagan in Atlanta on the night of April 26. Continue Reading →

Brother Declares Bowen Left Georgia in August

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Brother Declares Bowen Left Georgian in AugustAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, May 6th, 1913

Paul P. Bowen, arrested in Houston, Texas, on suspicion of complicity in the murder of Mary Phagan, could not have been connected with the Atlanta mystery, according to members of his family here.

Albert Bowen, a brother, said Paul Bowen has been in the West since last August, when he went to Arkansas to work for the Rock Island Railraod. He has never been back to Georgia since, he declared, but has spent the time in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

On April 21, Albert Bowen declared, he received a letter from Paul written at Alto, Texas, April 17 and mailed at Tyler, Texas, April 18, in which he mentioned having been to Lufkin a few days before. Another letter, he said, was written from El Reno, Okla., April 4, and one was received just previous to that from Warren, Ark.

The Bowen family stands well here, the brother, Albert and father being connected with mercantile establishments here in responsible positions. Friends of the family declare their belief in Paul Bowen’s innocence.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 6th 1913, “Brother Declares Bowen Left Georgia in August,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)